Beautiful
by Lady Azar de Tameran
Summary: One Shot. Just a little introspection while watching someone you love. Neroon/Marcus.


**_Beautiful_**

**Disclaimer**: It is not mine. If it was, the show would have continued after the fifth season. All characters are depicted as legal age.

**Warning**: AU, Slash, Fluff with a bit of introspection

AN: I have been writing a great number of Harry Potter one-shots, so I thought that I would try my hand at something else.

* * *

He's beautiful, you know.

He is so very beautiful just standing there, talking to Lennier and Vir. His eyes sparkle, and he smiles as his companion says something amusing. He takes my breath away.

He is so very beautiful, and I cannot believe that I ever hated his people. I cannot believe that I ever feared his kind. I cannot believe that once upon a time my greatest desire was to see their cities in ruins, watch their worlds burn, hear their dying screams.

It sickens me that I once thought that. My species is supposed to be above such things. Yet, that is just a lie, and my kind is not supposed to lie. We are supposed to be enlightened. We are supposed to be compassionate and generous. We are supposed to be the first among equals, the chosen of the Vorlons.

Yet, the humans make a single mistake, one in which we share equal blame, and we are willing to damn them all. We are willing to butcher them by the thousands, millions. We destroy entire worlds, slaughtering all in our path… men… women… children.

Still, I cannot truly hold it against my people. I am as guilty as they are, maybe more so. I am guilty of causing the deaths of so many humans that I will never be able to atone for it.

Now, I look at them and am filled with shame… and a little awe. They are still mistrustful of us; they probably will be for generations. Yet, in their hearts, they have already forgiven us.

And somehow, even with this knowledge, members of my race still hold them in contempt… still treat them as though they are worthless.

However, I know better. I know the truth.

They are wonderful in a way that I fear my kind can never be. They can suffer the worst things imaginable and still persevere. They can survive horrors that would send the bravest Minbari screaming for Valen's mercy. They can actually find it in themselves to forgive us for all of our sins against them.

I wish that we could be like that. I just wish…

And now, I have him, and he loves me. However, I cannot quite understand why. I almost killed him. I almost wiped out his entire race, but somehow, he loves me. He does not even have to say it, though he does.

I just know.

All he has to do is look at me with those eyes, and I know that I am his now and forever.

I would have it no other way.

If only the others of my kind could understand. A few do, mostly my friends or others with friendly dealings among the humans.

A great many do not. They cannot understand why one such as me, one with my rank, status and privilege, would marry a human. They cannot fathom why I would bestow such a great honor on one such as him.

But it is I who am honored. It is I who received the great gift, not the other way around.

However, the others just cannot see it.

I am drawn from my introspection as I feel a hand on my shoulder. I look down and stare into his beautiful eyes, such an amazing color. I have never seen a Minbari with eyes that shade before, so vivid a green as to glow.

"Are you ready to go?" my Marcus asks gently, smiling at me. A strand of hair falls free as he tilts his head to look up, and I gently tuck it behind his ear.

"Yes. Are you?" I answer with a hint of smugness as my hand lingers on his face.

"But of course," he teases and deftly avoids my lips as I lean forward to kiss him. "Neroon," he states with a grin, "such behavior. What would your fellow warriors think?"

He taunts me with his laughter.

I simply stare into his eyes and manage a smirk of my own. His vivid eyes sparkle, his soft hair mere inches away from my hand, and my fingers beg to touch it.

He is so very beautiful.

And I cannot help but inhale sharply.

After a moment, I finally respond, "I think that they would understand."

He is so beautiful. He is mine.

* * *

Ever Hopeful,

_Azar_


End file.
